We've recently been on a USA/Canada Road trip which was full of brief but amazing stop overs. One of which was Toronto, Ontario...
After a couple of sleepy days at Blue Mountain Resort we were ready for some city life and Canada's commercial capital didn't disappoint. Our accommodation in Liberty Village (found through airbnb) fit the bill perfectly, a neat apartment in a quieter part of the city, which was within walking distance of pretty much everything. Although we didn't spend much time in Liberty Village the area seemed nice, safe and full of runners and dog walkers, and people who run with dogs - all of whom seemed to be the friendly, career-go-getter type.
Our day started early and in the direction of Honest Ed's, a brightly lit department store we passed on the drive in.
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| Clafouti, Queen Street West |
Picking up sustenance in the form of a peanut butter and banana croissant (mmmm, yep) from Clafouti (home of the 'Crookie'!) we headed north through Trinity Bellwoods Park, across to Bathurst St and on to Bloor St. Honest Ed's is quite spectacular, a real looker (made for instagrammers) and a bargain hunter go-to.
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| Honest Ed's, Bathurst and Bloor St |
Dundas Street, a couple of streets south of Honest Ed's has some awesome looking eateries, all of which were sadly closed when we passed by at 10am. Stand outs, which, had we had the time, we would have return to included Bent Family Restaurant, Queen Margherita Pizza and Patois.
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| Bent Family Restaurant, Dundas Street |
City trip highlights, for me, tend to come in the shape of fancy stationary shops, coffee houses, delis and design stores, all of which can be found in Kensington Market, off Dundas. A few favourites in this area were Kid Ikarus, Good Egg and Bungalow. After some browsing (and a little spending) we had a really good cardamom iced coffee and a healthy(ish) snack at Fika and headed east in search of The Design Exchange and the Art Gallery of Ontario.
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| El Catrin, The Distillery District |
Post culture fix, our travels further east led us to a really lovely and quite quiet part of the city, the Old Town and Distillery. This area, newly restored, is filled with fancy shops, bars and galleries. Here, we stumbled upon El Catrin Distileria, a real find, with a memorable cocktail list and the best tapas we've tasted in a long while. It's well worth the trek across the city to sample it. I can highly recommend a Smoked Flower (or three).
A trip to Toronto has to be polished off with a stop at the CN Tower. Which is impressive and, so we're told, worth the 553m trek skywards, particularly for the revolving restaurant, but is just as good to experience from the Black Bull on Queen Street West, with a cold beer and good company.
There's loads more to Toronto than this brief snippit, and if you're visiting soon, enjoy! We're jealous!
LD x
This post was dedicated to our chums Sarah and Naz (who are due to visit later this month) and Torontonian Kelly R, who gave most of this info, really.
